Be Careful What You Wish For
by Helike
Summary: AU. Once he got what he had wanted, he decided that maybe it was not quite what he had thought it would be. Yet now it was too late to regret it. Takes place in the future. Characters: Sasuke, Naruto, Itachi. Sasuke's POV.


I refuse to write a Valentine's fic, but here you have a little something instead of it :) Once you've read it, you're officially allowed to call me the most insane person in the world for having written it.

**Warnings:** AU. To the point it might hurt readers that are against seeing a few certain things. It still is Konoha, but different from the one we know. It's the world in the way it might have been if one thing happened. Three words: the butterfly effect.  
**Summary:** There was one thing that Sasuke had desired for a long time. Once he had got it, he decided that maybe it was not quite what he had wanted, once again proving how true one of old sayings might be – 'be careful what you wish for.' He wished he had known more about the consequences of his decision back than, but it was too late to regret it now. Takes place in the future. Please, read the FAQ and the author notes after you've finished the story. One-shot. Sasuke's POV. (I can't believe I wrote something from his POV oo;)  
**I do not own Naruto**

* * *

**Be Carful What You Wish for**

He couldn't believe he had been so stupid to want it, to desire IT so much. How many years it had been since that day when the promise had been made? Twelve? He sighed and shook his head. He wished he had known more about the consequences of his decision back than, but it was too late to regret it now. Dull throbs in his temples appeared again, reminding him quickly about the price that would have to be paid. With a silent sigh he massaged the temples, hoping it would prevent him from a migraine, and focused his thoughts on the revenge he planed to get on Itachi. The man was going to pay him for THAT.

The train of his thoughts was abruptly disrupted by a loud thud coming from the other room. The thud which was quickly followed by another thud and a silent cry of surprise or pain. Wait... Pain?

Sasuke cursed, getting to his feet as quickly as possible for a person who had spent definitely too long time sitting cross-legged on the floor, and within a second he was in the other room. A brief glance on the inside of it let him quickly assessed the extent of the damages having been made so far. With a grimace on his face he looked at an upset, hopefully not broken, table, and a book-shelf which definitely shouldn't be lying on the floor as it was now. And at his scrolls scattered on the floor as well.

And then his look moved to the cause of the mess and he frowned.

'I'm pretty sure you can explain it,' he said, his voice sounding suspiciously calm. 'Well?'

Two dark-haired and pale-skinned boys sitting on the floor and surrounded by the mess they had created flinched. Two pairs of dark and definitely scared eyes turned in his direction at the same time and the children froze.

Sasuke glared at them.

'It was his fault!' the boys exclaimed simultaneously, pointing their chubby fingers at each other.

'Oh... I'm sure it was...' Sasuke mumbled, his eyebrow twitching.

He quickly put the table and the shelf-case in the right places and then looked at the boys again.

'You have one minute to tidy up the mess,' he said crossing his arms on his chest and narrowing his eyes.

The boys obeyed him immediately, putting the scrolls on these shelves which were in their range. He examined the effect and moved a few scrolls from one shelf to another and then looked at the boys standing before him with their heads hung.

'Out. To the porch,' he gave them another glare. 'And make sure you'll just SIT and do NOTHING there.'

The two boys disappeared from the room with a speed which many shinobis could envy them.

'Uchiha Itachi... You'll pay me for that!' he said with passion, moving to the room where one more child was sound asleep.

And for the whole time he kept wondering why he had agreed to babysit his two nephews and a niece.

Definitely Itachi was going to pay him for that.

With a silent sigh he decided to move the little girl to another room, from which he could keep an eye on his nephews. With some relief he saw that the boys indeed were doing what he had told them – just sitting on the porch and talking about something so silently that he couldn't hear it. And he couldn't help but smile, because the view was rather heart-warming.

The boys definitely looked like Uchihas, having inherited their dark eyes, a pale skin and dark hair, yet none of them had these characteristic facial marks that Itachi had.

The older, almost 4-year-old Shigeto, was a silent and serious boy who definitely reminded his own father, Itachi, in almost every possible way. And because of his thoughtful nature very often the boy seemed older than he was in fact.

But even this calm boy could be easily provoked to prank by his little brother, Hideru, who was only one year younger. The boy was lively and energetic, when compared to the Uchihas standards, and for many it could be a great mystery after whom the boy had taken after such a personality. However, it wasn't so hard for Sasuke to notice that Hideru in many aspects reminded him of his own mother, Mikoto, who undoubtedly was the most unusual woman in the whole clan.

On the whole the boys made a strange duo that could be more that loveable at times, but changed into a not-so-little-calamity every time their parents left.

But for a while Shigeto was telling about something Hideru and the latter was listening to his brother's tale with a very curious expression on his face, his body leaned toward his brother.

Sasuke smiled and moved his look to his little niece, Seiko, sleeping soundly in her carrycot. The girl, who wasn't even one year old, was definitely cute. Just like the boys she had a pale skin and dark hair, but she also had Itachi's eyes. Which simply meant that no boy in Konoha would be able to resist her look, once she'd get older. And Sasuke almost chuckled thinking about all these poor boys that would like to date his little niece one day. Unfortunately for them, first they'd have to deal with her parents, her older brothers, her grandparents and over a dozen of overprotective uncles (and aunts), because Seiko had already won the hearts of all of them and all of them would like to make sure that no one would hurt her. Yes, the girl was definitely cute. Too cute for her own sake.

_Unless she starts to cry._

Sasuke only winced at the sudden thought, feeling that his migraine was about to come back.

'Hey, Sasuke!! Are you there?!'

The Uchiha blinked. The voice was rather muffled and it took him a while to realize that it belonged to no one else than Naruto. Wait... Naruto? Sasuke cursed under his breath, suddenly remembering that he had promised to meet with Naruto today, and dashed to the entrance door.

'Sorry, Naruto!' he started before his friend could say anything. 'I know I promised, but something came up today.'

'Something...' the blond frowned, but before he could finish the sentence, he was interrupted by quite a loud cry coming from the inside of the house.

'O, shi...' Sasuke only muttered before he ran in the house and rushed in the porch direction.

But when he got to the place, he only saw the boys sitting on the porch and eyeing him with innocent looks on their faces. Too innocent.

'What was it this time?' he asked looking at them suspiciously.

'Nothing,' the boys shook their heads.

He frowned. But before he could say something more, Seiko decided it was the best moment to remind everyone about herself. And something that Sasuke was afraid of the most happened. The girl started to cry.

Cursing again, he ran to the room where he had left the carrycot with his little niece and quickly he took the girl off of it and then cradled her in his arms trying to stop her cries. Yet it wasn't what Seiko decided to do. As for a little girl she was, she definitely knew how to make good use of her lungs.

Sasuke winced, when a sudden stab of pain almost blinded him for a while. And then he blinked feeling that somebody was taking the girl from his arms. When he turned his head, he saw Naruto's smiled face. He almost forgot that he had been talking to him when he had heard the cry. The blond must have followed him.

'So it's all about babysitting again?' Naruto asked cradling the crying girl in his arms.

Doing so, he looked around the room, noticing a few things lying in rather unusual places (things that Sasuke had planned to tidy up, but he hadn't due to the obvious reason) and glanced at his friend.

'And I thought you were a neat-freak,' he grinned at Sasuke.

'Oh, shut up, dobe,' Sasuke gave him a glare, to which Naruto obviously didn't react, and then winced again, feeling another stab of pain. Migraine was going to kill him.

Massaging the temples, he watched how the blond was dealing with Seiko. And what he saw made him forget about the pain for a while.

The girl stopped crying and started to gurgle, smiling at the blond-haired man holding her in his arms and he smiled back, his blue eyes sparkling, making her gurgle even more.

Sasuke stared at the scene.

'How did you do that?' he asked.

'Did what?' Naruto gave him a quzzical look.

'She's not crying...'

'Ah... this...' he grinned at both of them. 'A Special Uzumaki's Technique.'

'You're kidding...' Sasuke stared at him with a doubtful expression on his face.

'Of course I am,' Naruto replied with a mischievous smile. 'Not telling.'

'But...'

'No buts,' Naruto said. 'No ninja reveals all his secrets.'

'Yeah, sure,' Sasuke almost rolled his eyes. 'Especially you.'

'Things change,' Naruto gave him an unexpectedly serious look and then put Seiko in the carrycot. The girl didn't fall asleep again. Instead, she lay in her carrycot eyeing the both men curiously.

'Should work for now,' Naruto smiled cheerfully moving his look to Sasuke. 'How has your day been?'

The Uchiha pondered on the answer for a while.

'Definitely full of events,' he sighed massaging his temples again.

'Oh, man! I can imagine!' Naruto laughed.

'Thanks for your compassion,' Sasuke gave him a glare.

'C'mon!' Naruto exclaimed. 'Aren't I helping you now?'

'You are?' Sasuke blinked.

'I am,' Naruto nodded. 'Because you need a break. Otherwise this headache will kill you before your brother is back.'

And before Sasuke could even react, a pair of strong arms pushed him gently in the direction of the closest armchair.

'You stay here,' Naruto looked at him with a serious look on his face.

Sasuke tried to protest, he even opened his mouth to voice it, but whatever he wanted to said was never said as once again a cry from the porch was heard. And in the same moment Seiko started to cry. Sasuke reacted immediately and tried to stand up, but he was stopped by strong arms pinning him to the armchair.

'What are you...' he glared at the blond while trying to release himself.

'Trust me,' Naruto said. 'Leave everything to me, okay?'

There was something so reassuring in his voice that Sasuke, although reluctantly, obeyed and stopped fighting with Naruto.

'But you can't be in the two places at the same time,' Sasuke remarked.

'Can't I?' Uzumaki's eyes were sparkling with humour when a few of his clones appeared.

'Kage Bunshin?' Sasuke blinked and then almost facepalmed. _Oh, why haven't I thought about it before?_

He looked blankly at how the clones were taking control over the situation. One of the clones ran to take care of the boys on the porch, the other one stood by Seiko's carrycot making faces, another was still standing by his side and... Sasuke shook his head. There were too many of them, the Uchiha decided, and winced when the pain intensified.

'Told ya,' one of the Nartuo's clones, or was it Naruto maybe, appeared before him, grinning at him and giving him a big cup of tea and then throwing himself in the other armchair. 'Seems that Hideru fell down from the porch while trying to copy a kata that Shigeto had shown him.'

Sasuke looked at him with a resignation clearly visible on his face.

'Itachi will kill me if he finds out,' Sasuke hid the face in his hand. 'Hideru is not supposed to learn it yet.'

The blond looked at him with sympathy. 'Don't tell him then?' he suggested.

'As if I have any other choice...' Sasuke shuddered.

For some reason the words appeared to be amusing for the other man.

'C'mon,' Naruto laughed. 'Your brother is not that bad.'

'Nope. He's even worse. Especially when he's angry,' Sasuke mumbled but laughed as well. He had to admit that Naruto had some special talent for making everyone feel better and forget about little mishaps and mistakes.

'Okay, I think I'll better spend some time outside with the boys,' Naruto added after a while. 'Now that Seiko is asleep, you can just stay here and wait till you feel better.'

The blond stood up and headed toward the porch.

'Wait, Naruto...'

Naruto turned back and looked at him expectantly.

'Do you need anything more?'

'No...' Sasuke shook his head. 'Just... wanted to say thanks.'

'Welcome!' the other man grinned at him before he disappeared.

Sasuke looked at the place where Naruto had stood a while before. Then he leaned back in the armchair, trying to find a position that would release the pain a bit, and let his thoughts wander aimlessly.

Quite quickly the subject of his pondering became Naruto. Uzumaki was the best friend he had ever had and sometimes he wasn't sure what he had done to deserve it. That friendship was like a gift from Heaven and there was no day when Sasuke wasn't grateful for it. And very often he regretted not accepting the friendship at first, but pushing Naruto away instead.

Long minutes passed before the pain disappeared. But he didn't even notice it at first, still being lost in his thoughts, which for some reason brought a smile to his face. The smile which he wasn't even aware, but which was quickly noticed by an unexpected newcomer.

'And what managed to force a smile on this usually gloomy face?'

Sasuke flinched hearing the voice and glared at the speaker, but he didn't move from the armchair.

'Couldn't you at least once make some noise while coming in to this house? You almost scared me!' he blurted out. 'And I'm not gloomy! No more than any Uchiha at least,' he added quickly.

'Is it how one should greet his older brother?' Itachi cocked his eyebrow. 'And you're a shinobi. Shinobi should always be prepared.'

Sasuke scowled at him but said no word, knowing that the other man was right – he should have been prepared.

Itachi sighed, came closer to his little brother and sit down in the armchair left by Naruto not so long time ago .

'How was it this time?' he asked.

'Not bad,' Sasuke admitted reluctantly. 'However, I still don't know why I agreed to it in the first place.

He hadn't expected what happened next and failed to react when Itachi raised his hand and poked him gently on the forehead like he had done it years ago. Sasuke looked at him surprised, pressing his hand to the forehead.

'Because it was what you wanted, my foolish little brother?' his brother suggested smiling slightly at him and Sasuke returned the smile with his hand still resting on his forehead, in some crazy way feeling like that little boy he had been years ago.

'Is your headache gone?' Itachi asked.

'How?' Sasuke blinked and looked at him greatly surprised.

The older Uchiha chuckled.

'You can call it intuition,' he suggested and chuckled again seeing a suspicious look on Sasuke's face, but he didn't continue the thought, deciding to change the subject instead. 'I assume that's the reason why Naruto is playing with the boys at the moment?'

Sasuke nodded and then frowned.

'You don't mind, do you?' he asked quickly.

'And why should I mind?' Itachi seemed amused. 'The boys love him and nothing bad will happen to them when Naruto is around.'

Sasuke couldn't disagree with the statement. Naruto, not having had his own family, simply had "adopted" those close to him, starting from Iruka, Sasuke and Itachi and then adding other people, quickly creating his own "clan" – bigger and greater than any other could be. And when the children had been born, they immediately had become a part of this "clan" as well. Sasuke wasn't sure if his brother knew about it or not, yet he had no doubt that Itachi was aware that if anybody tried to hurt any of the children, it would probably be the last thing said person did in his or her life. And that Naruto was ready to protect them with his own life.

The two men sat in silence for a while and Sasuke spent this time observing Itachi and trying to do it in such a way the latter wouldn't notice. It wasn't hard to notice that the older Uchiha was tired, probably even more that Sasuke himself. The shadows under his eyes clearly showed that recently the man hadn't slept as much as he should have, the main reason being some missions he had been forced to take. And deep in his heart he wished that at least once his older brother would be forced to take a break.

He kept watching Itachi when the latter stood up and slowly paced in the carrycot's direction and stood there watching his little daughter sleeping. He slowly reached out his hand and gently brushed hair away from her face. Sasuke couldn't see her face now, but he was ready to bet that Seiko was smiling as if she could feel her father's presence. And then, for a while, Itachi's expression also changed. That neutral expression he usually had on his face was replaced by a smile. A shadow of that smile which Sasuke remembered from these years long gone and almost forgotten, when both of them had been children and none of them had been who they were now.

Yet a fool would be one who would decide to take this softer expression as a sign of Itachi's weakness and Sasuke knew about it. The thought brought some memories, images of that "other" Itachi, to his mind. His brother's emotionless face during his argument with a few clan's members. Itachi during the massacre, stained with blood, with empty eyes from which all feelings disappeared, facing the man who tried to kill both of them. And finally Itachi facing the clan, his eyes flashing with crimson, and stating that if they tried to change his sons into soulless machines or tools, as they had tried to do it with him, and everything for the clan's sake, then there would be no clan about which sake anybody should be worried. Back then Sasuke hadn't even been surprised that nobody had opposed to Itachi's words. His brother could be really... convincing when he wanted.

He came back to reality when Itachi turned back and headed toward the porch.

'I'll go to see the boys,' the man said.

And Sasuke decided to follow him.

They both stood in the doors leading to the porch, watching the scene in front of them. Naruto was sitting on the porch, half-turned toward the doors the brothers were standing in, and telling the boys story about how he had defeated some terrible monster all by himself and how it had become a close-to-death experience. The whole story was vividly illustrated with Naruto's energetic gestures, making the both boys listen to him with loveable and full of awe expressions on their faces. Sasuke was pretty sure that Naruto was aware they had been watching him and the boys, but he didn't stop his story, still keeping the boys' attention.

And then, as if sensing their presence, Shigeto turned his head in their direction and patted his brother's arm. And within seconds both boys got to their feet, leaving behind Naruto mumbling something about a world full of ingratitude, yet whose smiled face denied the words, and run toward their father as quickly as they could. And Itachi stepped forward, with a shadow of that smile still visible in his eyes, and crouched, allowing the boys to hug him and then hugging the boys back and greeting Naruto with a nod.

Sasuke watched the scene, pondering. Definitely, being the man he was and having experienced what he had, Itachi appeared to be a surprisingly good father. Better than anyone could suspect.

THE END

* * *

**FAQ**

1. No, I have no idea who Itachi married. You can put whatever person you want here :P

2. Characters' age: Sasuke is 21 or 22 at least. And that would make Itachi respectively older.

3. Names I used are just random Japanese names I found in my dictionary. What names did you expect for the weasel's children? XD;

4. Why did the boys tidy up the mess so quickly? If a kid is old enough to start a shinobi training, such kid can also tidy up the mess quickly. And before anybody comments the age – ninja children were trained from their infancy (thank you, tesk, for telling me so).

5. "Kata" means "form" and is s a Japanese word describing detailed choreographed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs. Kata are used in many traditional Japanese arts such as theater forms like kabuki and schools of tea ceremony but are most commonly known for the presence in the martial arts. (thank you, Wikipedia).

5. Whatever. Ask and I'll answer.

* * *

**A/N:** This time I put them at the end. The story was brought to you thanks to my little sister and her constant "when I'll have a nephew/niece" questions shudders She suggested that it would be funny to see a story in which Sasuke was babysitting and that it definitely should babysitting more than one child XD; Thus, the story.

I admit I was struggling a bit while writing this one. Not because the characters had to be a bit OOC (it's AU, for goodness sake), but because I knew what I wanted to get, I had the picture in my head, but for some reason I couldn't get the right feeling. It still is not perfect you know, but I kinda like the result, though :)

My favourite scene is when Itachi pokes Sasuke on the forehead. It so reminds me about their past and when I see in my mind older Sasuke and Itachi behaving in this way... It's just hard to describe how it feels XD

What else... As you can see, although the characters are a bit different, I tried to give them some traits they have in the canon!world. Naruto is still a loud-mouth and a little scatter-brain probably, but he also is a bit more serious. When I wrote Sasuke, I use my old concept of him – someone who still might keep people on distance and glares at people often, but who is a bit different person when he spends time with these close to him. And Itachi... He is just that Itachi from Sasuke's old memories, when the brothers were still brothers, but now older, more matured and more experienced by life. I thought that if he had ever got the chance and his life had been different, then he would have become a person who cared deeply only about a few people close to him and not that much about anyone else.

And the notes about AU: It's the AU I made up some time ago. The world in which Itachi was saved at some point of his life and in which Shisui is still alive. The massacre happened, part of the clan was killed in it, but this time Itachi was the one who tried to protect these who were important to him (and at that time it were only Sasuke and Shisui). In other words: It's the world in the way it might have been.


End file.
